News consumption habits, linking drive future of journalism

In early October, I wrote about The Washington Post’s launch of its Political Browser. In attempt to capture the attention of political junkies and the growing number of Americans regularly consuming news online, the Post created a site rich with content from rival media outlets. In the heat of the election cycle, it drew on its stellar reputation for political reporting to bring readers “what’s good on the web.”

The election cycle of 2008 solidified the significance of the Internet as a primary source of news, especially among Millennials. A Pew Research Center report notes:

Nearly three times as many people ages 18 to 29 mention the Internet as mention newspapers as a main source of election news (49% vs. 17%).

Online news consumption increased across all age groups since the 2004 election and among those ages 18-29, TV has lost significant ground to the Internet.

Blogs on newspaper sites have been around for a while, but the Post adapted and embraced linking to competitors’ sites in a way many newspapers have not. Linking to external sites, like bloggers have been doing for years, can be seen in action here. Linking, according to Publishing 2.0’s Scott Karp, increases engagement and page views.

I’d agree that providing links to related stories increases the credibility of a journalist, even if it just shows the reporter knows what else is out there on the subject. Karp takes linking one step further:

… links aren’t just a fundamental element of the reporting. Links can BE the reporting.

So, can someone — like any of us — provide a comprehensive list of links on a subject matter and call themselves a journalist? How about a link journalist?

The difference between my list of links to political stories and a Washington Post staffer’s is the level of expertise on the subject of the links. With expertise, I’ll argue, comes credibility. And credibility means a certain level of objectivity, objectivity I’d be willing to bet would be lacking from the average person’s list of links.